


Fade to Black

by sirsoundwaveIV



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-03-02 07:59:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13313904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sirsoundwaveIV/pseuds/sirsoundwaveIV





	1. Baby Steps

Aile twirled one of her loose brunette bobs around a pointer finger. Blue eyes bounced back and forth between the two men across from her. Looker never seemed to leave home without his brown detective coat, and some part of her wondered if he had a closet full of the things. Meanwhile, Bianca had to fight Aile to put on anything more formal than a t-shirt and jeans, though the arguments had stopped for the last few months.

She heard the dull hum of the lights up above, the soundproofing working together with the heavy metal door to lock the room away from the world in a very real sense. Bianca had insisted on Looker and his friend coming out to Unova for an interview, and frankly Aile didn’t want to know how angry Bianca would’ve gotten had they declined.

Still, she knew Looker well enough and trusted him. He seemed nervous about the other guy across the dull gray table with him. Looker rubbed his chin and coughed before gesturing towards the stranger, wearing a black button up shirt that he hadn’t bothered to button, clashing with the semi-formal black pants. 

It didn’t clash as much as his sandals, though. If Aile gave a single damn about professional wear, she might’ve rolled her eyes. 

“Aile,” Looker spoke first. “This is Nanu. He wanted to come learn more about you before we made a final decision about hiring you into the World Police.” They wouldn’t bother with her if it weren’t for her powers. Liquid metal shifted around her left hand and formed into a piece of armor with spikes on the knuckles before vanishing into the recesses of her mind.

“Mhmm,” Nanu looked Aile up and down, then exhaled. “While Looker may know you, I don’t.” He paused to cough, his deep brown bangs shifting slightly. “And I’m his superior, so…”

Aile crossed her arms. Her mind raced through various details. Some pleasant, some not so pleasant, some a mix of both.

“Alright.” Aile wouldn’t trust a random stranger entering her life, especially now. “Soooo.” Aile drummed her fingers to break the silence, Looker looking on as Nanu’s eyes scanned Aile. It didn’t feel like he was focused on her baby bump though. A small relief after a few months of looks and drowning in attention from family. “Where do you want me to start?” she said, failing to hide her mild annoyance.

Nanu clasped his fingers in front of his mouth. “The beginning.” Looker and Aile exchanged glances. “Birth on.” Gears were churning in Nanu’s head, Aile could tell by the look in his eye. Some small part of her wanted to tell him that he can hear whatever Aile felt like saying; the dominant part of her pointed out that this would be uncomfortable no matter where they started.

“A little odd.” Aile grumbled and adjusted herself in her chair, wishing that Bianca was here to massage her feet. Still, Aile knew she could do good with the World Police. During the chaos in Unova she wanted nothing more than a quiet life, but with the powers and with some of the people out there...

“I guess I’ll start off with the boat. Just remember I wasn’t some psychic super baby.”

-

The fog hung low over the harbor on a cold dark night. A few sailors milled back and forth, occasionally looking at the odd woman out. The light inside the ticket office highlighted her smooth skin and curly dirty blonde hair. Aurea Juniper tugged her blue fleece jacket tighter over her stained and torn lab coat. The cold night eased her nerves. For as long as she remembered, breaks outside during long nights with research had been her favorite. 

A boat slowly grew in Aurea’s vision. The night sky couldn’t cloak the cracks in the paint, the bullet hole or two in the sides of the boat. It was only fitting this shithole of a boat came in from Kanto.

Aurea swallowed and stood up as the boat closed in to the nearby dock, a rickety wooden thing that fishermen probably used during the day. The cold dark couldn’t set her nerves at ease any longer. Aurea had agreed to take a refugee and her newborn into her life, after all. Aurea squinted at the name on the side of the boat; the _S.S Peeko_. She nodded; the captain of the boat had given her a few identifying details just to make sure.

A man clearly entering the middle of his life stepped off the boat, looking back to offer a hand to a woman. Slender and brunette, twin brown bangs hung off the side of her face, blue eyes looking down at the newborn swaddled up in her arms. 

“Thank you, Briney,” the woman said softly. Briney nodded.

“Anytime, Anabelle,” he said. He scanned the docks until they landed on Aurea. “I believe that’s your new friend.”

Aurea looked back just in time to get a look at the stranger’s blue eyes, bags underlining them. The newborn in Anabelle’s arms fussed, letting out sounds and grabbing for the mother’s bangs.

“I…” Aurea paused to yawn, rubbing her green eyes. “Apologies, it’s late.”

The mother looked up to the sky. “I see that. You are Aurea Juniper, correct?”

Aurea nodded. “Yes. Yes I am. I see Briney told you?”

She smiled. “He’s… done a lot for us, yes.” She winced at the newborn yanking a strand of hair.

“It takes a brave soul to do that for so many people.” Especially to and from Kanto of all places. It had been what, months since the war passed? 

“Indeed.” Aurea stepped closer to the child. Aile grabbed for her mom’s hair again, only stopping at the sight of Aurea’s gaze.

“She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Anabelle said.

“She is.”

_"So much for telling me from birth," Nanu said._

__

__

_"I don’t need to stand up to punch you, you realize," Aile said._

-

Months passed since that night on the dock. Aurea quickly took to helping Anabelle with the child. Aurea stayed up during long nights to research and write after all; a crying child at 3 AM just meant it was time for a break. 

Of course, all good things come to an end.

Aile giggled as she bounced up and down on Cedric Juniper’s leg, curly hair shifted all over the place. He laughed at the child’s pure joy, and partially to disguise the thoughts rumbling through his head.

It wasn’t every week one filed a missing person’s report, after all.

At the least Aile was too young to remember her. Cedric grinned widely before smushing the child’s cheeks together.

“How is my little angel doing?” He asked in his best baby voice.

“Gwood!” she said, giggling and spitting through duck lips. “Again!”

“If you insist!” he said, releasing her cheeks. Aile’s giggles turned bouncy once more. Cedric’s laugh and the play ceased slowly at the sounds of conversation behind the flimsy wooden door.

A bottle of store brand soda sat on the table, alongside a bottle of cheap spiced rum. A pair that only college kids and extremely poor people could love. Kayleigh Fennel sat on one end of a folding card table, her brown sweater and jeans contrasting harshly with her long purple hair.

“Of fucking course,” Aurea growled. The ice bounced off of the small clear glass in her shaking hand. “Of course she just-” she slammed down the drink “-vanishes.”

“We don’t know that,” Kayleigh said. “She could’ve been kidnapped, for all we-”

“She up and fucking left, Kayleigh!” Aurea said, raising a hand. “No one broke in, it’s been a goddamn week, her phone is dead, she’s a _bitch_...” She slid down in her chair and contemplating grabbing for nothing but the shitty rum. “She just… left me with a child.” Aurea buried her head in her hands. “A single mother trying to be a full time scientist, researcher.” Aurea buried her head in her hands and exhaled, almost cried. “Fuck.”

Kayleigh bit her lip. The hum of the lights emphasized the pause in conversation, and so too did the sounds of playing outside the door. 

“You don’t have to do this alone.”

“Don’t be stupid, you have a career too,” Aurea said. Her head rested on her arms, tilting the flimsy table ever so slightly.

“You have a career _and_ a child!” Kayleigh snapped. She shook a finger at Aurea, then pointed the finger at the door. “It won’t just be you and it certainly won’t just be you and me!”

Aurea huffed. Then the muffled sounds of Cedric and Aile laughing together hit her ears. Her eyes widened, she blinked, she pushed out her chair as Kayleigh did. The two creaked open the door, just wide enough to see Aile and Cedric tossing a Spheal plush back and forth, one large black button eye hanging loosely by threads as it soared through the air.

“You don’t have to do this alone, Aurea,” Kayleigh whispered. “There’s me, there’s your dad…” Cedric waved at the duo with a wide grin seconds before the toy smacked him in the face. He froze for a second, tongue sticking out of his mouth like he had been just knocked out in some old slapstick cartoon. 

He fell to the ground dramatically as Aile laughed and clapped.

Aurea snorted and smiled just a bit. “Little asshole.”

Kayleigh smiled too. “You can become a world-class scientist and still be the mom Aile needs right now.” She leaned on the doorframe. “We’ll do anything you need us to and besides,” she preempted her own joke with a chuckle, “your dad needs someone his age to play with too.”

Aurea shrieked with laughter She walked back to the table and clapped her hands, Kayleigh giggling shortly behind.

“Yeah.” Aurea wiped a tear or two from her eye. “He really does.”

-

A grand total of five seconds passed after the story ended.

“So your mother abandoned you,” Nanu said. 

“ _Biological_ mother,” Aile said, sitting upright and shaking a finger at Nanu. She winced at the sudden movement irritating her sore feet. “Aurea is my damn mother and…” Aile slouched down a bit, grew quiet. “And I wish my biological mother had the decency to stay gone.” 

Looker glanced sideways at Nanu and coughed. A disinterested stare locked Nanu’s thoughts to the recesses of his mind. He scribbled in his notebook with one hand, while his other held a smartphone, a sleek black phone that couldn’t have been released more than a few months ago.

Looker’s eyes widened. “I… see you of all people got a smartphone?”

“Yeah.” Nanu dropped the disguise, phone above the table and his focus intently on the screen. Both hands worked to type out a response to-

“Who is Cyn-“

“Excuse me?,” Aile asked. She waved a hand. “You probably want more than just my baby stories?”

Nanu looked between Looker, who was suspicious, and Aile, who was annoyed, and decided to focus on the phone to avoid both. He didn’t just want the baby stories, he wanted the entire picture. He could prepare a list of prepared questions and get prepared answers, or let the person tell their own story and get precisely what he was looking for.

“No, but uh…” His phone buzzed again. Looker’s eyes narrowed. Nanu moved his phone away from Looker’s sight and scowled. “Screw it, break time.” His chair screeched against the cold metal floor. Walking to the exit, Nanu procured a white box of cigarettes, a colorful Camerupt emblem imprinted on the carton.

Aile glared and Looker raised an eyebrow at Nanu, the man almost out the door and his thumb still working on his smartphone screen. “If you need anything you can just buzz the front desk.”

With that, he slammed the door shut with a mighty thud. Aile turned towards Looker and sighed in exasperation.

“Is he always like this?” 

Looker scratched his chin with a pointer finger. “I’m not certain about his… newfound smartphone interest.” He bobbed his head back and forth. “But in essence, yes.”

“Wonderful.”


	2. Assemble

“For real, this time?”

If someone had told him text-to-speech had been a thing a while ago, he might’ve warmed up more to the idea of a smartphone sooner rather than later. He felt a desk worker in one of the cubicles stare at him, and he gave her enough of a side eye to push her focus back on her desktop.

He passed a group of office workers debating recruitment proposals, a heavy gray door labelled “EXPERIMENTAL ROOM; APPROVED ENGINEERS ONLY”. He caught a blonde lady from a small team of scientists working on DNA samples in the forensics room looking through the window as he clenched the cigarette in his teeth.

He grumbled obscenities only he could hear as he rummaged around with his free hand for a lighter. The phone buzzed again as he nudged the door open with his elbow to the hustle and bustle of Castelia’s streets..

<8:45 AM> Yes, for real this time.

“Well, no shit,” Nanu muttered. The pattering of steady rain and the clouds worked in tandem to clear the streets of Castelia. He took a moment to absorb the words and the smoke from the cigarette into his lungs. Soon after, the smoke floated up haphazardly before dissipating against the overhang protecting him from the elements.

He told her so. They had kept in contact after his mission to Sinnoh, Cynthia and him. How she was so intrigued by Steven _Stone_ of all people was a mystery to every sane person and probably Arceus himself. He wanted to tell her she was an idiot, that pretty boys and empty suits were a terrible combination, that Stones had been assholes for as long as Nanu could remember, that he’d just see her as blonde goth arm candy.

He sighed, flipped the digital keyboard open, and pressed the microphone.

“You okay?” With another tap, the message went off on its merry way. He eyed a poke ball-esque icon on his screen for a few moments, and ignored it in favor of leaning back on the cold concrete building.

He always liked rain. Felt like it was washing away the old and bringing in something new, something _fresh_. Back in Alola, it helped wash away some of the unbearable summer humidity. Some of his friends told him he just wasn’t used to the humidity yet and eventually would, and his well-practiced reply amounted to _It’s been two decades and change, I’m sure it’ll happen any time now._

He inhaled again, letting the smoke rest in his lungs, and let go of the smoke into the rain and relaxed, cigarette nestled comfortably between his two longest fingers.

Then his phone buzzed. 

<8:52 AM> I’ll be fine.

She probably just needed a bit of time. Time away from a Stone usually let a person heal their mind, body, and dignity. He briefly flashed back to something he mentioned to Looker; if his most important piece of advice was to always trust a Surge, his second was to stay the hell away from a Stone. 

He stared out at a passing car, red and banged up and sputtering along as his mind drifted to the Junipers. Cedric had his infamous child-like excitement over science, Aurea worked like absolute hell to get to her current position. Not to mention the fact she had to deal with raising Aile, which was an accomplishment in and of itself if Looker’s files were remotely accurate.

“They’re pretty driven,” Nanu muttered to no one in particular. “Worth more than people give it credit for.” His thumb hovered over his screen, his cigarette clenched between his teeth and well over halfway done.

“I’m working, but if you need to chat or anything I can take another break.”

His phone turned black, matching the case protecting it from his Meowths.

“Little shits,” he muttered to the rain and puddles, slipping his phone back into his pocket. God, was work an understatement. Not like he could just tell Cynthia what was going on here quite yet; super powered psychics beyond just the usual tendencies of mind-reading and telekinesis were incredibly rare, the information behind them highly classified.

Of course he had been in a room with Aile for all of an hour and knew she’d basically tell anyone close to her about the Junipers. He eyed his dwindling cigarette with wariness. See, he had already read up on Aile’s files; he hadn’t been _that/i > distracted as of late. Looker had done a hell of a job putting them all together for this. _

_Unstable, reckless, stubborn, emotional… Nanu counted off the first few words that came to mind with Aile. All of this and she could form iron suits from her imagination too._

_“Fuck.” He shook his head, crossing his arms beneath his chest and letting a few ashes sprinkle to the ground. Lord knew what she could do with it with actual experience and practice._

_Of course, while trying to recruit her into the World Police was dangerous and stupid, the alternative was to let Aile do whatever the hell she wanted all the while more and more lunatics were tooling up to try and awaken some legendary or another._

_“Jackasses who don’t really know any better.” He saw what happened to someone that tried to control legends, approximately 15 minutes before he got torn into ribbons by some monstrous dragon _thing_ called Giratina. Which happened a couple of minutes after Cynthia’s Garchomp ripped a Gyarados in half, and he wasn’t quite sure what moment he looked back on with more fear._

_Still, the moral of the story, the moral of all of that bullshit was; riding on random people with random Pokemon teams wasn’t going to cut it. If more idiots like Cyrus tried to control the power of gods, the World Police needed something, some _one_ that could stand up to them._

_And as her files made it plain as day that for all of Aile’s faults and downsides, she had the potential to do it. A thought wormed his way into his mind, of a story about something similar to this._

_“The fuck was that movie called…” Nanu muttered, rubbing his chin. He had seen it with Cynthia, it suddenly felt almost _uncannily_ similar to this situation, there was the black guy with the eyepa-_

_He snapped his fingers, a grimace crossing his face as he caught a glimpse of the butt of his cigarette. Glancing around to make sure there were no witnesses, he flicked it into a nearby potted plant._

_“Avengers,” he said to himself, arms crossed and eyes rolling. Guess if it worked for a bunch of fictional superheroes, certainly it’d work in the real world with zero downsides whatsoever._

_He sighed and turned towards the door, hand twisting the metal handle and yanking it open._

_“Call me Nick fucking Fury, I guess.”_


	3. Childhood

Aile knew Looker wasn’t much for conversation. With Nanu gone, he quietly asked how Aile was doing, if they had a name for the child, if they had a gender, and so on and so forth before falling silent. Looker always struck her as the awkward type; driven with a mystery to solve or people to save, but otherwise even with his tall stature could vanish in a social crowd of people.

Still, Nanu soon broke the silence, strong scent of cigarette smoke following him. He sat down. Aile couldn’t help but peer over the table a bit to make sure he wasn’t tapping away on his phone.

“Alright, so,” Nanu said. He turned to cough into a fist, Looker turned away, arms crossed while his eyes rolled. “You mentioned the Junipers. Aurea, Cedric. Kayleigh’s married into the family too, isn’t she?”

“With Mom, yeah,” Aile said. Aurea and her had planned their wedding ceremonies one after the other. They were small, cute affairs, and neither had a significant enough of a difference in guest list or difference of opinion in ceremony to justify otherwise.

Well, besides the argument over the type of wine. Bianca helpfully pointed out that they could just buy both types of wine approximately ten minutes into the argument. And probably rolled her eyes after the fact before returning to the wedding invitations.

“Right.” Nanu nodded. “Memories, stories of your childhood. I don’t need all of em… just a few.” 

Aile sighed and drummed her fingers on her lap. It wasn’t anything out of line with this already ridiculous request.

“Well, sure.”

-

“You see, Aurea took her fair share of trips. Conferences, meetings, the works. She pretty much made all of the time in the world for me when she was around, so it wasn’t a huge deal. And besides, if she was gone I got to spend more time with grandpa,” Aile said.

A mess of research papers and bills covered the kitchen island. It had always been a train wreck, really; before Aile had came into his life, Cedric had spent almost all of his time in the field performing research and writing papers. Now it was just a train wreck because it had accumulated several of Aile’s odds and ends over time, ranging from blankets to backup plushies to second copies of shows Aile particularly enjoyed.

Cedric had memorized a few of their theme songs, much to his chagrin and dismay.

He smiled as Aile let out a small “oops”, the toddler accidentally rubbing some ketchup on her stuffed Spheal, ragged and stained with age. A few stitch marks stood out from the fabric, a deeper shade of blue than the rest. 

“We’ll just have to wash it,” Cedric said, grabbing the Spheal. Aile crossed her arms and pouted.

“But I want to play with Arf more!” Aile protested. She puffed her cheeks.

“Well, Omega’s in the other room.” Cedric walked towards the basement door, stopping short of the top steps to look at Aile. 

“But he’s not small and cuddly.”

Cedric dismissed the concern with a wave. “Just grab some blankets and lay on top of him.” His smile widened; Aurea would distinctly describe it as his ‘I’m messing with someone’ smile. “He’ll love it!”

Aile huffed again. “Fine.” Cedric vanished into the basement and Aile grabbed her blanket off of the counter, one of the many Cedric kept here. 

Aile stepped out into the living room, partially occupied by what could only be accurately described as a big blue spider tank the size of a pair of couches. His red eyes flickered open as Aile approached, contrasting sharply with his pristine teal body.

“Mistress Aile!” he said, voice sounding like it had been ran through a gentle synthesizer.

Aile huffed and rolled her eyes, and showed her blankets to Omega. “Let me lay on top of you.”

Omega froze for a moment. “I, hrm.” He copied the sound of a human clearing his throat. “I would be.” . Certainly the old one had put him up to this, his eyes darted back and forth in hopes of some sort of distraction.. “Ah! I see you don’t have your plush Spheal with you.” 

“Yeah...” 

“Well, washing it consistently means you don’t get sick from all of the germs,” Omega said, 

“I know,” She crossed her arms and tapped a shoe, looking up at Omega. “But it’s still dumb.”

The Metagross shook his head. Ah, youth. “I’m sure you’ll learn in due time.” 

Aile stared at Omega as if she hadn’t acknowledged a single thing he had just said. “Ok.” She paused and mustered her best demanding voice. “Lemme on.”

Omega replicated a sigh the best he could.

Cedric emerged from the basement an hour later. Aile, wrapped up in her blankets, had also procured a pillow and promptly dozed off. Omega looked like a dog that had been in a cold wet rain for far too long, too petrified to move and risk his young charge falling off and hurting herself.

His red eyes went from the sleeping toddler to the grinning grown child.

“I see you took your time washing Arf?” Omega said, stilted pauses between words. 

“Had to make sure all the germs were out.” Cedric smirked and Omega growled. The professor approached Aile and slipped Arf into the crook of her arm, the slumbering child quickly hugging it tight.

“And had to leave me with a small _fragile_ human being, who you no doubt put up to this,” 

Cedric shoved one hand into his pocket and patted Omega with the other. “Well.” He took a few steps away from Omega, the Metagross looking up with some confusion. “We all need to overcome our fears eventually, right?” 

Cedric turned towards the stairs. “Cedric.” The first few steps creaked “You can’t leave me with her, I’ll- I’ll- accidentally break her she’s so small-“ Cedric stepped up to the upstairs bedrooms, nothing but decades old wooden walls and stale green carpeting matching the couch in Omega’s sight. “- did you listen to a word I just said?”

Aile yawned and adjusted her sleeping position. Omega looked up and groaned.

-

“What about Aurea? Your life back in Nuvema?” asked Nanu.

“I’m getting there, you asked for more than just that. Mmmm. Let’s jump ahead a few years, I was 12-13 or so now?” Aile said

-

Aurea grinned and scrolled up and down on her phone once more. A cheap smartphone, almost as old as Aile was. Her eyes glimmered at the email, then jumped to another. A couple of companies with competing offers, immediately intrigued by her research into the deep dive into Unova’s biological ecosystems and its development, spanning thousands of years. They wanted even further research, they offered labs, as much help as she needed, a six digit _contract_ …

She scanned her kitchen, the hideous yellow paint with cracks in it, that one cabinet door that never quite shut tight, the pile of bills choking out the table. Maybe she could clean up in this place, offer Aile a little more in life than just some dingy dump.

A knock at the door snapped her out of her train of thought. She peered through the peephole; an older blonde woman she immediately recognized as a neighbor, holding Aile’s left wrist as ironclad as she could manage.

“Josephene, hello!” The light summer breeze washed over her through the open door. Aurea’s smile faded into a sigh, her eyes dropping to her pouting daughter. “What did Aile do this time?”

“She threw a dictionary at Cheren,” Josephine said. Her gaze turned on the defiant Aile. “And won’t apologize.” 

Exhaling sharply, Aurea pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’ll handle it.” If it weren’t for the dictionary, this wouldn’t have been a first. Aurea leaned on the doorframe, allowing Aile to storm on past like a whirlwind, all fury and hot air.

“… Is Cheren okay?”

Josephine chuckled. “He’s fine. Just a bloody nose. Though hardly innocent.” She scoffed. “Little shit said some things about Aile’s real mom leaving her when an argument got heated.”

Aurea’s gaze turned steely. “Of all of the things…” She shut her eyes, stretched her arms towards the ground, and took in a deep breath. Then exhaled. “Thanks for breaking them up.”

Josephene laughed. “It’s hardly a problem, wiith how my son is and your little firecracker, it’ll happen.”

Aurea chuckled and shrugged. “It’s a good learning experience, if nothing else.” Aurea looked up at the sound of stomping feet the floor above. “I suppose I should talk to my firecracker now.”

“Yeah, sure thing,” Josephene replied. She waved as Aurea closed the door. “Give it a week before letting them see each other again?”

“The usual,” Aurea replied. She pressed her back to the door and rubbed her forehead. Of all of the damned things that little shit could’ve said to set off Aile. the emails from before came back to her. There’d be something to make Aile happier today, at the least. Her eyes and ears followed the sounds of Aile’s stomps upstairs, and Aurea mentally timed the steps. One, two, three… silence.

“There we are,” Aurea muttered. Aile, of all children, had a pattern to her angry outbursts, Aurea recalled as the stairs creaked under her feet. Give it five, ten if it was really bad, minutes before heading upstairs, because Aile could hear the creaking footsteps. Aurea turned the corner at the top of the stairs, down a slender hallway with cracked yellowed paint and ugly brown carpet torn in places. Aurea walked past her own bedroom, door open just a smidge to see the pile of tossed bedding and a mix of clothes on the floor.

Aurea smiled at the sight. Seconds later she was at Aile’s door, and Aurea leaned in close. The only sound was Aile’s bedsprings creaking.

“Aile?” Aurea said, then knocked. “Can I come in?” 

“Sure,” Aile muttered. The room was a mess of clothes and Aile’s books, tossed about the other half of the room away from her desk and bed. A poster sat above the bed, showing off a young blonde model from Nimbasa, ‘The Shining Beauty’ written in stylish yellow and black text underneath. Arf sat by Aile’s laptop, the stuffed Spheal having seen better days than the other pokemon plushies strewn about.

“Can I sit down?” Aurea said. Aile scooted over, and the bed protested with another creek with Aurea’s weight added. Aurea looked down at Aile. “What happened?”

“Cheren’s a jerk is what happened.” Aile brought her knees up to her chest. “We got into some argument over-” Aile paused “- something Bianca brought up, he was wrong about something but claimed it was “the literal definition” of it, he said something about like how you’re not technically my mom by definition…”

“… so you threw a dictionary at him,” Aurea finished. She clasped her hands in her lap.

“If he’s going to be a literal jerk,” Aile spat, looking up at Aurea with anger. “He can eat that dictionary.”

“Well." Agreeing with Aile would set a poor example here- though she was right, Cheren was a little dick- but… “You know you shouldn’t do that to people.”

“He deserved it,” Aile grumbled.

 _Well, yes,_ Aurea intoned. “But you shouldn’t do that to people… and maybe you shouldn’t hang out with him?” She shrugged sheepishly, knowingly. 

“But he hangs out with Bianca all the time,” Aile said. The bed bounced, Aile burying her face in her hands as she threw herself back. “And it’s not like she’d say no.”

Well, with her father the way he was, Aurea couldn’t blame Bianca for not wanting to turn away a friend. Aurea bit her lip. If nothing else, she and Jose were more than well-equipped to handle the two angry ones of the three. “I suppose not,” Aurea said. “Just… try to be nicer next time?”

“If he is.”

“That said.” Her smile widened. “I have some news for you!”

“Hm?” Aile picked herself off the bed. 

“I have job offers!”

Aile’s eyes brightened. She squealed.

“Yes!” She pumped her fists up. “I knew you’d do it, Mom!”

Aurea laughed and brought in Aile for a one armed hug. “So, do you remember the things I promised you if I got a steady laboratory gig?”

-

_“I still remember that list vividly. Re-model the downstairs, redo my bedroom to my liking, a giant mountain of plushies… and a pokemon of my choice,” Aile said._

_“Your choice? That could be… expensive,” Nanu said_

_“You know how much companies are willing to pay for professors like Mom Anyone with potential to lead a starter program is in high demand with enough networking. And besides, she already knew which one I wanted.”_

-

“You know, Unova is the only region where the climate is fairly similar throughout?” she remarked to no one in particular, though Kayleigh, her longtime friend and science partner, looked up and nodded. “Yet the Pokemon population becomes incredibly diverse on the east coast of our region.”

“I suppose it makes for a good excuse for a weeklong trip?” she replied

Aurea grinned. “Well when my sponsor wants to pay me for this research trip, who am I to turn it down?”

The hustle of the town- if it could be called that- ceased at the large portion of the beach. Ice caps could be seen off in the distance, crowded by what Aurea assumed were Walrein and their younger brethren. 

Aile crossed her arms and pouted, looking around the beach. “I don’t see anything, Mom,” she complained.

“It is odd,” Kayleigh said. “Usually Walrein let off their young onto land if they choose at this point. It’s part of why Spheals are very good starter pokemon; besides their even temperaments, they choose if they want to live closer to humans.”

“I believe in this part of Unova the starter program has Spheal, Budew, and…” Aurea hummed. Aile caught sight of a wiggling pile of sand closer to the water. “Vulpix, I think?”

“Something like that, if they’re not licensed to handle the rarer start-“

“Mom! Kayleigh!” Aile shouted, hands cupped around her mouth. Aurea and Kayleigh turned, a worried Aile next to a much too small Spheal. “I found one, but…”

“That’s much too small to be let go by a parent…” Aurea murmured. The Spheal let out a weak cry, Aile taking a knee next to it. The Minccino pranced up to the small Spheal, the two talking back and forth in their own little language. It would’ve been adorable in just about any other circumstance.

Kayleigh caught a glimpse of a Sharpedo fin emerging from the water, not too far from shore. “Aile, catch it. The sooner we get to the Center, the better.” 

Aile nodded, showing the Poke Ball to the Spheal. Aile tapped it on the nose.

_“We immediately took her to get checked. She clearly hadn’t eaten in about a day or so, and Kayleigh suggested to Aurea that a Sharpedo attack might’ve separated her from her family,” Aile explained._

_Nanu scoffed “Or ate the mother.”_

_“That hardly seems relevant, sir. The point is the Spheal had been separated from the family, may the story continue now?” Looker said, then sighed._

_“This is why I’ve always liked you, Looker. Anyway, Katara had to stay in the Center overnight, so… I paid a visit,” Aile continued._

The chilled air caused Aile to flinch, even with Aurea’s puffy white coat wrapped over her pajamas. Aile had made one ill-fated attempt to make a trek to the PokeCenter barefoot, but the borderline frozen sand won out and forced her into hiking boots She shut the door behind her as gently as humanly possible in a probably vain effort to not wake mom up.

Still, Aile was never one to wait until Christmas morning for her presents; nor one to wait until morning to make sure her Spheal was okay. Sanitized floors and bright lights greeted Aile on arrival, but if it weren’t for the older nurse watching late night talk shows over a cup of coffee it’d be as much of a ghost town as the rest of the place.

“Oh, welcome…” The desk lady spun her chair around to face Aile. “Oh, you’re the young woman from earlier, arentcha!”

“Yeah. ” Aile yawned. “… is my Sphealokay?”

Aile got a very warm smile in response. “She’s just been eating and drinking fluids in the back,” Exiting the desk, the nurse stood over Aile. “Do your parents know you’re out?”

“Yup,” Aile said, borderline monotone. The nurse raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. If nothing else, she had Aurea’s number from earlier.

“Uh huh, well if you’d come this way…” 

The back of the PokeCenter was practically a maze of halls, leading this way and that way and to x-rays and to emergency surgeries and all sorts of other things Aile couldn’t and didn’t bother to comprehend. The dull fluorescent lights greeted them every step of the way; if there wasn’t her Spheal here, Aile thought as she sidestepped a box of supplies, there was no way she’d stick around for long.

_“Hospitals were always disturbing to me. Only got worse as time went on, but… we’ll get to that. Still, we found her in the back room. There were a few other pokemon back there but she had her own little fenced off area, bed and food and all,” Aile said, then coughed._

“Hello.”

Aile shut the multi-colored plastic gate behind her with a click. She sat cross legged across from the Spheal. A Magikarp chew toy sat next to her on her smaller bed, next to a bowl of empty food and water.

The Spheal stared back for a few moments before rolling to Aile’s legs. Aile felt the warmth and fat bounce off of her. Blinking up at her, the Spheal shut her eyes and clapped her flippers.

Aile smiled and squished the Spheal’s cheeks, feeling the plush fur and fat beneath it. Just like she had always imagined a real Spheal would feel like.

“Do you like Katara as a name?” Aile asked.

Katara barked and nuzzled Aile’s outstretched hands, joy and warmth filling Aile's heart. She squealed and hugged Katara tight, burying her chin in the Spheal's thick fur.

Neither of them noticed Aurea peeking in, the nurse from before behind her. The scientist smiled and shut the door with a click

“Aile can stay the night if she wants,” Aurea said. “Thanks for calling me.”


End file.
